Public Library and Memorial Hall, Lowell, Massachusetts

[LIB9018] In 1889, the Lowell City Council passed a resolution providing for the erection of a new City Hall. Shortly thereafter, as a result of a petition by Lowell citizens, the Council authorized a second building to be located adjacent to this new City Hall, to be dedicated to the memory of the Lowell men who had lost their lives in the Civil War. This building would also be the site of the new library. The city hired Lowell-born architect Frederick W. Stickney to design Memorial Hall. During the ceremony to lay the cornerstone, Edward T. Russell, Commander of the B.F. Butler Post of the G.A.R., said the new building would be "a monument to the heroism of the past and a storehouse of knowledge for the future." Memorial Hall opened in 1893 with the City Library in its basement. [website]